Monday, February 29, 2016

I wasn't planning on attending Long Beach Comic Expo until they announced Alan Tudyk as one of the guests, and that he would be having a Con-Man panel on the Saturday of the convention. I was seconds from purchasing a Saturday badge when I realized that I should look for a discount code. Goldstar.com had weekend passes for less than the regular price of a Sunday pass. A friend sent me a "karma code" and I only ended up paying $16.50 for a weekend pass. Goldstar ticket: $20 + $6.50 - $10 karma code = $16.50. Yes!!!

This droid moved and had sound!

I had gotten a cold the week before the convention, but I managed to make it through Saturday, though I left earlier than I had originally planned. I decided not to attend on Sunday since I was (and still am) recovering.

The first panel I attended was "Chase Masterson's Pop Culture Hero
Coalition & The Girl Scouts." The Girl Scouts had participated in a
workshop making comic pages with a comic book professional, and they
were given their badge at the beginning of the panel. The focus of the
panel was anti-bullying, and the panelists were Chase Masterson (who
also moderated), Jayashri Wyatt (UN advocacy specialist), Dr. Janina
Scarlet (clinical psychologist), and Tommy Walker (actor, Daredevil).
The panelists told personal stories of being bullied, and how they
handled being bullied (and what they should have done). Jayashri had met
with Malala Yousafzai on three occasions during her work with the
United Nations.

Chase Masterson

Tommy Walker

Dr. Janina Scarlet

Jayashri Wyatt

The next panel, was the ConMan panel, but I'll recap that in another post. The last panel I attended was "The Marvel Report Presents Marvelous Cosplay." It was their first panel, and the panelists discussed how they began cosplaying, Marvel cosplay, and answered audience questions. At the beginning of the panel, they handed out raffle tickets to the audience members and there were two Funko pops they were going to raffle off at the end of the panel.

Gavin and Shawn Richter

They offered advice on how to begin cosplaying, and the misconception that you need to know how to sew in order to cosplay or that it has to be expensive.

Shawn Richter

Gavin Richter

Sarah

I think the most important pieces of advice were:1. Cosplay what you love2. Go to thrift stores or military surplus stores.3. Think outside the box---look at pieces and see the potential it has4. Don't stress about accuracy because5. Cosplay is always a work in progressI'll post a recap of the ConMan panel soon, and I'll be attending Silicon Valley Comic Con and WonderCon in March. I hope to see you there!TTFN,Veronica

Friday, February 26, 2016

Last year, I went to the taping for the Live with Kelly and Michael Post-Oscar show which is taped inside the Dolby Theater (where the Oscars were held just a few hours earlier). The Dolby Theater has approximately 3000 seats so there was a lot of waiting in line outside at 2am until about 5am when they moved us inside to wait in line. Apparently, it was the sound-check for the musical guest (who will remain unnamed....google it ;-) if you wish) was running late and that's what was delaying us getting into the theater to be seated. Once we were allowed in, it was a mad rush to get us all seated before they went live.

Slightly organized lines inside the Dolby lobby.

Then the live "taping" happened. I took a few pictures when we weren't "live," but they don't do the sets justice. It was absolutely stunning.

Oscar Host, Neil Patrick Harris with Kelly and Michael

Kelly getting a makeup touch-up during a commercial break

I have a ticket for this year's taping very early Monday morning..or should I say Sunday night? I've been inside the Dolby Theater quite a few times (mostly for movie premieres), but it's really transformed by the set designs for the Oscars.I'll post a recap of this year's experience next week.TTFN,Veronica

Thursday, February 25, 2016

By the time of the Divergent premiere, I had attended a handful of premieres and have attended double that amount since. This was probably the worst ran premieres I have attended. Most premieres start the screening about 30 minutes late due to all of the press outside and getting people to their seats inside the theater. The Divergent premiere started over 90 minutes late. They were using all three theaters in the area (Westwood) which are all less than a block from each other, and two are directly across from each other. I ended being in the furthest theater from where they had placed us for the red carpet arrivals. There was a huge fan area in which you had to have a wristband to access. Everyone in this "official" fan area would also be seeing the movie that night in one of the three theaters being used.

I was surprised to see Bellamy Young there (and after the movie, I'm still not sure why she was there), but I have to admit that she's even prettier in person. I don't watch Scandal, but I do watch Criminal Minds, where she was a returning guest star as Hotch's girlfriend, Beth.

Bellamy Young

Bellamy Young

The only pictures I could get of Kate Winslet were of her back, and it was dark by the time she had arrived. I also didn't get any good pictures of Maggie Q.

Ray Stevenson

Mekhi Phifer

They didn't allow phones in the theater, but I was able to hide my phone as well as my friend's phone in my purse (I do love my Miche bags!) so we didn't have to check them in. Once we were inside, we grabbed our free soda and popcorn and found our seats. About 20 minutes into the movie, there was an issue and the screening had to be stopped. I was getting worried because the parking structure where my car was parked closed at midnight and the initial screening didn't start until just after 9pm. It took about 10 minutes and the movie was re-started.

Tony Goldwyn

I'm so glad we didn't check-in our phones, because it would have been a nightmare trying to get my phone, get to my car and exit the parking structure before midnight. It was lucky that we were in the smaller and "further" theater from the main premiere because it's the closest theater to where I parked. The phone pick-up was a nightmare also because the phones were in clear plastic bags and laid out on a table. People were just grabbing their (presumably) phones. It would have been easy for anyone to grab several phones and walk away.

Shailene Woodley

The reason for my posting this almost 2 years later is that I finally went through the pictures in my dropbox account, and I had forgotten about most of these events. I'll be posting more "old" stuff on Thursdays as "throwback Thursday" and on Fridays as "flashback Friday" posts. TTFN,Veronica

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

I obtained passes for the Deadpool fan event which was
promoted as showing clips from the film and a Q and A with the filmmakers.The event was at 3pm, but since it was a holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday),
I had the day off and was able to attend.

I didn’t anticipate the problem with parking due to the
holiday (increased shoppers) and the construction happening in the parking
garage.It took almost 40 minutes to
park my car because most of the spots were taken, the lanes were made 1-way
only due to the construction, and the lack of movement of any of the
traffic.I would have turned around and
left if I was even able to find a space where I could turn around.By the time I found a place where I could
turn around, it was a back corner where there were many empty parking
spaces.This corner was actually much
more convenient for getting to the theater since the elevators opened across
from the theater.

They checked the IDs of everyone in line (no one under 18
years of age were allowed), as we waited in the lobby.Once we were admitted, we received the ticket
for the screening plus a ticket for a free soda/water and small popcorn. The
“ticket” also served as a form for submitting questions for the Q and A. The event was hosted by VSauce, and the
filmmakers were introduced at which time we were told that we would be seeing
the entire film and not just the clips we were expecting.The director, Tim Miller, was quick to
mention that the film wasn’t finished (it was still being “tweaked”), but we
were seeing the complete film.Just
before the screening began, we handed in our questions.

After the screening, which only had 1 end-credit scene, the
filmmakers which included Tim Miller, Rob Liefeld, TJ Miller, Stan Lee, Brianna
Hildebrand, and (I think) two of the writers.Stan Lee was definitely happy with his cameo and wanted more
nudity.My question was the last
question asked for the night which was “What was your favorite scene to
shoot?”I don’t even remember what the
answers were, but I think the bridge scene was mentioned.

When we left the theater, we were given USB flash drive
rubber bracelets with the VSauce logo on them.It wasn’t until a day or two later that I discovered the bracelet glows in
the dark.

It was such a fun event, and I’m really happy that I went,
and stayed. New York had a similar event that same nightin which Ryan Reynolds was the guest.